


Eleanor Rigby

by Mierke



Category: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 10:25:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15241356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/pseuds/Mierke
Summary: Pre-series AU. After leaving the mental institution, Rebecca goes on a world trip and ends up in Liverpool. There she meetsEleanor Rigby.





	Eleanor Rigby

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt "Eleanor Rigby - Beatles" for 1 Million Words' Weekend Challenge.

"Well, hello there..." Rebecca said, squinting to read the plaque through the rain, "... Eleanor Rigby."

She sat down next to the statue and leaned against the wall, allowing the rain to pound into her sore body. She had been traipsing through Liverpool for close on six hours, now, and her feet hurt, her legs hurt, even her stomach muscles ached from exertion.

She closed her eyes, grabbed her bag a little tighter just in case someone walked by who thought it looked expensive (they'd be right), and let herself go for a moment.

"You know," she began, figuring talking to a statue didn't even register on the crazy scale when she had fled to another continent to get away from her past. She had been _institutionalised_ , so really, wasn't she way past that scale into another league by now? And what was crazy anyhow, aside from a term to _other_ people who didn't fit into your worldview? "It rains a lot in England. I know that's what everybody says, but I figured that was a stereotype, you know. Like, how French people are rude, or how there are kangaroos all over Australia. Which there aren't, you know. Not in the cities anyway. I don't know about the rest of it, I've never really been. I just passed through Sydney and then quickly left."

She sighed.

"But here, it truly does rain. All. The. Time."

"You just caught us in a bad month," a voice replied.

Rebecca shot up, but refused to open her eyes.

"Is that the statue talking?"

"Of course it is," an amused voice replied. "Who else would I be?"

Rebecca nodded, and let her body relax into the wall again.

"Don't you get cold out here?" she asked.

"I'm made from bronze," Eleanor replied. "I'm always cold."

"That's so sad," Rebecca murmured.

"I don't really mind the rain," she continued. "I find it soothing, somehow. I like it much better than the constant sunshine Australia was pouring out. That's just not me, you know? There's no sunshine left in me. Just an ocean full of raindrops."

She sighed, swallowed against the tears building up in her throat.

"Maybe I'll stay here. Liverpool seems like a perfectly lovely town."

"It is," Eleanor said. "And I wouldn't mind the company."

"But you said the rain would stop," Rebecca whispered, not looking forward to having to face the sun again. It was easier to hide in the stormy dark, easier to accept who she was when the world around her was cold and drab.

"It always does eventually," Eleanor replied, her words dancing as if she thought it a positive thing.

"I don't want it to stop," Rebecca said, sitting up now. "As long as it's raining, it can drown out the thoughts, it can drown out the memories. Pain only gets bigger in sunshine, gets enhanced and blown up. If you put me in the sunlight, all you'll find are cracks and breaks."

She collapsed into tears.

"There's nothing left of me."

Her tears mingled with the rain, and for a while all she could hear was the sound of her sobs. She had been running from this breakdown for so long that it was wrecking her body, uncaring about the strain her muscles had already been under. She was hurting all over, but she couldn't stop.

"Did you know a rainbow is just broken light?" Eleanor asked.

The question was so unexpected that for a beat, Rebecca stopped crying.

"I guess?" she said, sniffling.

"Sometimes being broken just means there's something magnificent on the other end."

Rebecca allowed herself to absorb the words. Was it true? Was there something beautiful in her, just waiting for the chance to come out? The idea seemed ludicrous, and yet…

She realised she wouldn't mind being a rainbow. Maybe it was time to stop running, and start looking for what the pain had revealed. Maybe there was still a version left of her that had been buried so deep that she’d forgotten it was there. Maybe she could be more than this.

"Thank you," she said, as she opened her eyes and got up from the bench. Her cold knees almost buckled under her weight, but she managed to stay upright with one hand against the wall. She needed to get back to her hotel, allow her body to warm up. And maybe, just this once, she could allow the rest of her to warm up as well.

"Thank you," she repeated, and she pressed a kiss to the bronze woman's head. "I hope one day your loneliness will fade."

She left the site then, determined to come back more often. Liverpool just might prove to be a good home.


End file.
